project 40/41

good solid week
the first good runs since begining of may
5 swims
2 turbos
and 2 long bikes ( enjoyed the tea break)
behaved well on sugar intake.
apart from swim all good.

good weekend
friday pm swim and run

sat very tough 4 hour bike hill rep session. totally spend after and no point doing another session pm .

this is where we are in the sport a few drops of rain and people start to cry- few guys that went to roundwood reported a few showers but otherwise great conditons - . so had to do session indoors ( not bad at all to be fair as i saw tri perfection by jan frodeno while turboing ( watching him was a bit like watching federer at his best just a joy ) in my mind the best performance outside hawaii ever- . the 2014 and 2013 world champ destroyed ( at the same time I think for being the current world champ and all the media work that this entails i think kienle did very well and will have boecherer as an ally in hawaii)
Ryf was also rocksolid too and in my mind we saw both the female and male hawaii winners y day ( i think frodeno is pure talend but kinele is pure drive and it will be interesting in kona - advantage frodeno.

pm 2 hour run

mon swim since i finished long run a 10pm i didn t feel that great in the pool but after 12 x 50 i asked my self do i want to be a wanabe or pb and i really pushed myself to the limit and was totally out of order after each of them struggling to breath. after 20 gordo told me 2 more ... i tried to argue for a few seconds, but since he is the boss during the session and swam over 20k last week to support me. i just did as i was told . glad i did as i still had another 33 and 34 sec interval in me ( times i have not hit since end of april)

next up is the next training session... and another 500g of weight loss.
step by step.

more relaxing 5 days less intensity to let body absorb the training

tomorrow is d day 2 bets are on
break 78.8 kg
and swim sub 5 for 400 ( my choice of weapons)
its going to be tough for both ones. but i did 5.08 for 400 on wed
I guess i need to borrow the hello kitty scales which undereads by 2 kg to win the first bet ...

rewarding swim session ;-0

78.5 kg
4.43 for 400, negative split . 25 m pool no drafting no wetsuit , same weapons as used for the 5.08 this week ( ps this is not a swim blog so dont ask what weapons ;-) lets just say i swam 4.43 as this sounds decent. and there is quite a bit of work to do over the next weeks to go sub 25.30 for 1900 m and 51 in october . but at least my monday swims are working. ( and they better are as they are horrible)
anyway thats one lunch and 2 carrot cakes won ;-0 ( 1 for sub 79 and a bonus one for 78.5 kg )

Jared Fluffy Sorcery wrote: »

Hopefully the hello kitty scales were not used!

no i realiced i had been de friended on bull****ebook when i tried to ask for them... mental note never speak the truth ;-)

I will have to be careful.
my take is ,that with focusing too much on losing weight this week the revocery hasnt happend as much as i would have liked to see it ( i still think it was the right thing to do and was aware of that , but i need to take that into account next week in terms of nutriton and training) .
I am usually sluggish ( and i wasnt out there to kill myslef today) after a few easier days but it did confirm what i felt on friday and saturday.

the hardest bit of the race today where the first 300 meter in the swim i really had to push, the rest of the day was steady, at the same time the few times i tried to push more i felt awful.

Respect to Belfast to have a race in the city with the run around the townhall , it was great looking at it while running.

zico10 wrote: »

He usually only wears a Casio he bought in a pound shop, so I doubt it.

but i know it was roughly 10,40 k as i was runing exactly the same pace as in my 60 min efforts i really dont need to use a garmin at this pace and i can guess my pace within plus minus 1 sec per k

( if i go easy than i am not as good anymore as i used to be to guess the pace )

52 min in sea water i hope not to much if i find the right legs ( but for tactical reason i might actually wait a few minutes before i enter the water as i might be better off comming out of the water close to an hour from the start ( iam a bit sick that the 1 hour guys get to race in a pack, so if you cant beat them join them might be the conclusion ).
while not as fast as swim in mallorca its faster than lets say frankfurt or roth. of course there could be a current but that would affect everybody in the same way and i would expect to lose 5..5 min on the leader in an Im swim on the first pack ( at the same time last year fastest swimmer in barcelona was matt malloy in 49 something who i was ahead of in kilkee that year and i asked him had he increased his swim training after killkee which he negated)
oveall iam much more worried aobut my 70.3 swim goal than the full Im goal but its only numbers anyway which dodnt mean that much
its much more important to be in the right place after the swim.and ima going to struggle with that one for the worlds ( iam improving but belfast was a good 30 sec off pace but better than tri an mhi which was closer to 1.30 off pace for 1500 )


fair week so far
thursday session i wasnt looking forward to much and was planning to build into it.while psyching myself up. than it all came the other way round and i went for it
hit 10 k one min faster than the last time and had to tie shoe laces in 2nd lap ( one duathlon lap in 9 min flat ( the third) which was a but crazy another in 9.11(the first) in that process) and then lost a bit time still a good bit further than last time and a good lesson for pacing.
and until 40 min i really enjoyed it ...ok iam totally lying i never enjoyed if but i had a nice rythem, last 20 min where character building.

Another half kg down in weight (bit positively surprised about that)

ticking along steadily in light of 2 high intensity training sessions this weekend only really tough session was my 60 min run.
the rest all a bit steadier.
another 20 sec faster for first 10k and last 10 min sub 3.30 pace ( bit of an mental issue after 40 min as i got seriously bored on the treadmil.
I am about 6 sec per k off where i need to be , but at the same time iam getting approx 2 sec a k faster each week and that despite the fact that fatique is building up . I just gotta keep the faith ... and unlike in april I just focus on getting faster rather than were i should be.


registered our relay this morning, going to an IM registration is a bit like going to club la stanta etc ( it aint for me ) and it was my intention to be in and out as fast as posible. of course it did not work a the same time if i had to get stuck I could have done much worse than meeting mark ( brillant placing off the run hub car ) and craig ( winner off getting his ceepo bikes in the best spot of the expo and even i could not help looking at those reynolds wheels)
still v glad when i was off on my concorde.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Did you have to come up with a team name for the relay? If so, do tell.

i think its 'the challenge family'
or
the 3 shadows of Mick
( mick got kicked out of the team for talking to much, after they won the 70.3 galway relay and deported to australia, but i think he still thinks he is the team ;-)

Seriously, I have no idea

it was tri zone 1

anyway saturday showed that my swim is improving and i was were i wanted to be with much less effort than i thought i would need ( thanks to darren ) still first 100 i was not sharp enough.

i cut the legs of my wetsuit friday at 11 pm ( its something i mean to do since april ...) and in the process managed to leave number belt and shades at home when i took wetsuit out ( big thanks to the officials that helped me to sort out number in t1 and t2 )



the other thing that did not work out was to get the new saddle proper adjusted was a bit to low for CK and a tiny bit too far forward )
adjusted it for sunday checked the bike in and then realised i had left my race suit at the race ( iam getting senile) .
so the one i used on sunday was different and ergo iam none the wiser ( iam crazy fuzzy about saddle height and unfortunately the p4 is not that great to adjust the saddle to the 1mm . anyway the saddle is the one i like so thats a good step in the right direction as it puts less pressure on my shoulders. but it was only 98% right

run sat was solid apart from first 2 k were i was a bit worried ( or better said i still had the wed session in mind I my body said no way aere we going there again.


did a 5 k cool down run and appox 1k swim cd
had to laugh the abuse tango good from his kids for not being on the podium on the way back .
cycled 18 k to bike check in
and run again sat pm for 8 k

and sunday was fun worked well till k 70 and then dropped down bellow a bit half IM Intensity
I was a happy camper when i handed over my timing chip.
some positive things to take away naturally the first 20 k did not feel that great then from 20 -70 i felt i cycled decent and then i did not push. was a bit worried that i would be over 2.20 but also didnt really care anymore after 70-5k high 2.18 is solid and i guess i lost aobut 90 sec in the last 20k
at the same feeling good today and i think iam on target to do the long run tomorrow as planned.

I was surprised how great, the atmosphere was in the park for the run
the ck race is much more my cup of tea , but the spectators on the run course were amazing in the park.
did a bit of a run after the bike
and an easy 20 k on the bike in the evening picking up the concorde from scotsman bay.
a challenging but within the limits weekend ( as i was very focused on recovery ) which i feel worked great and again more positive aobut the swim and also happy how good i felt satuday and sunday. ( had a 2 hour sleep while my team mates picked up their trophy and that did me well)

Sometimes the stars align...
and y day was one of those days
the plan half marathon in 79 min
wasnt looking forward to the run at all -finished turbo session late last night and 30 k run from Tuesday was my longest run of the year -and a 5 min per k warm up lap wasnt that promising either .

as it would happen i started exactly at the same time, as what iam sure will be a 2.34 marathon runner runner by the end of this year ( they just went the other way round ) so it was great to see them twice every lap ,and even nicer, that if anything i ever so slightly was faster.I missed them for the 2 last 2 laps as they did 60 min.

1.17 for 21,1k very well paced and less tired than the last time for 60 min, and another 1.5 sec faster per k for first 60 min is good
and as important body feels good toady, and mind gets a rest today as i pushed enough in the last 6 days and iam v happy how it went.
.
from know on excuse me if i talk my run up a bit ;-) i know its not qutie there but placebo can work and that felt almost like running yesterday, despite coach gordo giving out to me after the run- and rightly so - about my form in the last 20 min
As usual, thanks to exceution coach Gordo who makes sure I finish those sessions.

1 stone lighter now than for tri an mhi and the first time in 6 years i hit the dark green area for racing weight.